Saturday, 18 January 2014

Day 9: BodyCombat, Reading

What went well?

Went to a BodyCombat class (free trial week) at the gym. It was a good workout, and I also met a really friendly fellow student there.

Got quite a bit done - read 6 chapters today for my classes: two from The loss of sadness: how psychiatry transformed normal sorrow into depressive disorder for Sociology of Mental Illness and four from Who controls our schools? American values in conflict for Sociology of Education.

All of the laundry machines were free when I went to do my laundry.

What did I learn?

I need to get more efficient at reading and taking notes from readings, especially on-screen.

Group classes are far more motivating and make me work harder than trying to push myself with willpower. There's something about having an instructor scream at you and the social aspect of not wanting to be the only one dropping the intensity.

From The loss of sadness: It's possible that the epidemic of depression may be partly caused by diagnostic inflation, wherein people experiencing "normal sadness" in reaction to losses such as valued relationships, status and goals, are diagnosed major depressive disorder because the diagnostic criteria only consider symptoms and fail to take into account context.

From Who controls our schools: We want it all! Schools are like a "shopping mall", expected to fulfil an incredible array of goals and services (e.g. traditional academic goals, vocational training, social & emotional development, life skills, physical education, psychological health, extra-curricular activities). But if we want to decrease the gap between our expectations and the performance of schools, we need to either focus on a more limited set of priorities, or increase the resources given to schools. We can't have it both ways.

2 comments:

Hey Jessie enjoyed reading your blog. Btw, this should be the entry for day 9, =) sorry for being picky, but I figured you might want to commemorate certain days, like 100days so it might be awkward if you got it wrong xP.

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What's this blog about?

Hi! I'm Jessie, in my final year of my BA (Psychology) at the University of Melbourne. But before I finish up there, I'm heading off on exchange at the University of Pennsylvania (hence the name of the blog - Daily Pennings, haha) for a semester. So there are two main reasons why this blog exists: For others, and for myself.This blog exists so that my friends and family can see what I'm up to if they're curious. I also hope that it can serve as a resource for other students who are considering an exchange (or a degree) at Penn, in terms of the culture of the school and the US, and the practicalities of being abroad.Essentially, though, this blog will serve as a public journal. I plan to spend just 10 minutes at the end of each day writing a quick, simple summary of the day, including highlights and something I learned. This way, it'll be an accurate reflection of what actually happened on exchange, and it will also encourage me to reflect daily, which to me is important for self-awareness and living consciously, and therefore making the most of the exchange (and life), hopefully.If you find anything here interesting or useful, or if you're curious about anything, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you! :)

About Me

I am motivated by the potential for psychological research to generate rigorous, reproducible insights on human flourishing. My research interests fall broadly within two themes: (1) the processes that link personality with well-being, in the moment and across the lifespan, and (2) the motivating effects of moral emotions (e.g., gratitude, compassion, elevation) on prosocial behaviours.